Trying out the whimsy of Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule

I’ve been vaguely aware of Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule pretty much since it was kickstarted. I noticed more due to the theme and the artwork than the mechanics. However, the black and white demo is still available so I decided to make myself a copy.

What I found was a whimsical, dare I even say charming, game that I think would work really well with gradeschool kids. However, I don’t think it has legs to interest adults for very long.

The game consists of twenty double-sided cards. One side is goblins and the other is fairies. Each card face has a name and a symbol (sun, moon, toad, toadstool) The story is that the goblins escaped and you are trying to return to the fairy circle.

Mechanically, Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule is a fishing game like Scopa. That’s where you play a card into a pool of cards in the middle to try and get other cards.

Depending on the number of players, you deal out X cards to each player and to the table. The players cards are all on the goblin side and the table’s are all fairy side. The goal is to either empty your hand of goblins or get six fairies.

The basic turn is to play a card to the middle. Every card in the pool that rhymes with the card you played flips. You then take every card whose symbol matches the card you played. 

The symbols are paired so the moon is always opposite the sun and toadstools are always opposite toads. Plus, some cards are star cards and flip over all the cards. (You always get one in your starting hand)

Okay, full confession time. While I’ve played this a number of times, they’ve all been solitaire. And that’s clearly not the game’s strong point, although it is a good way to try out the mechanics. And, as near as I can tell, the PnP version is only different by not having color. Although the artwork is nice enough for that that be a genuine selling point, particularly for kids.

I like how there are two distinct mechanisms; the rhyming for flipping and the symbols for taking. It gives some oomph to your decisions. I think the artwork is cute, not quite Brian Froud but there’s a hint of him there.

However, I think there’s not enough meat for older players. I think you’d end up memorizing the cards, which would probably make the game boring (or incredibly cutthroat but I think boring is more likely) Every turn is a puzzle and I don’t think they are that complicated a puzzle. 

But I have a feeling that for kids between, say six and eleven, the game will really work. And I’ll have a kid that old before long. So I’m glad I’ve looked into Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124390/goblins-drool-fairies-rule

Pentaquark just doesn’t click for me

I want to like Pentaquark. It’s a quirky solitaire game based on particle physics with almost no set up and a short playing time. That’s the kind of game I’ve been exploring lately.

But... I’ve finally it weirdly fiddly and very counterintuitive. I feel like all the pieces should click together if I look at it hard enough and, when I see how all the gears fit together, I’ll be able to fluidly play it and enjoy it.

Mechanically, it’s simple. You’re sorting the cards into three piles, trying to get a specific assortment of cards into a specific pile. It has the added twist that every card has an anti side on the back and, every time you shuffle the deck, you flip the deck over.

However, you have to sort the cards into groups based on color and facing, which has different effects depending on what pile they’re in. And somehow, it doesn’t click when I’m playing and I struggle to make sure I’m playing this simple game right. 

I feel like there are too many moving parts for a game that is this short. Like I’m too busy making sure I’m following the rules to actually play the game.

I like the tiny little company of Button Shy. They make neat little games of all sorts and they offer PnP as an option and they really seem to try and push the envelope on what you can do with a handful of cards. 

But Pentaquark feels like an experiment that didn’t work. I’m not entirely giving up yet. I am still hoping it clicks and flows. But, for now, it’s just a grind.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207242/pentaquark

Ambagibus: should I be having this much fun?

Ambagibus kind of annoys me. It’s a very simple, brutally simple game. And I’m convinced that luck plays a possibly overwhelming role. And not just to sometimes make it too hard but sometimes to make it too easy. And after a game or two, you get a sense of what the best decisions are. 

And yet I keep having fun with Ambagibus and keep on playing it :D

Ambagibus consists of a simple set of tiles that show paths and your goal is to try and create a closed network of paths. The whole thing is just forty tiles you make yourself and takes up two sheets of tiles. And the game is draw a tile and place a tile.

(Did I mention it’s a solitaire game? It’s a solitaire game)

It’s not _quite_ that simple. Each opening has a number, one to four, and those numbers are priorities. You have to extend ones before twos and so on. Plus, there are two bombs that clear a square and cave ins that fill in a square. 

Still, it’s pretty simple. Even the most advanced rules, which have you start a new network if you finish one, are simple. This isn’t a brain burning puzzle. It’s a way to amuse yourself for a few minutes.

And for me, it works. I pause. I shuffle the tiles. I play a quick game. I’m done. I’m more relaxed and I had a good time. I go back to the rest of my life.

And, yes, if Ambagibus had any real set or clean up time, if it took even ten minutes to play, I wouldn’t be playing it as much as I have and I wouldn’t be enjoying it so much. It is literally just a way of pausing for me.

But that’s something I can use, at least at the moment. And I’m sure I’ll get bored or burnt out with it but Ambagibus has already vastly exceeded the value of the time and materials it took for me to make it.

I do have to compare it to Cheese Chasers, a very similar PnP game that came out around the same time and has a similar level of ease of construction and play. Cheese Chasers is a little more complicated but I think has even less depth. Not only are the decisions in Cheese Chasers simple, the patterns you create are very repetitive. I got bored with Cheese Chasers quickly but Ambagibus is still fun.

I wasn’t surprised when I saw that the designer, P. D. Magnus, is the same person who developed the Decktet. I think the Decktet is a brilliant piece of work. Ambagibus isn’t nearly as good but I can see how it didn’t come out of a vacuum.

I can’t say that Ambagibus is a PnP that everyone has to go out and make. It’s not a perfect or amazing game. But I’ve had a lot more fun with it than I expected.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42498/ambagibus

Another thing that makes me feel old

I recently saw a list of games from 2012 and realized that that was the last year I was really paying attention to what was coming out. Oh, I have played games that were published since then and I have some idea of what’s hot but that’s the last time I really was trying to keep track and play a lot of new games.

Becoming a Dad, moving across the country and other such real life stuff had a lot to do with that. But, as I have said before, there are so many games coming out these days, I don’t think anyone can keep up with it all :D

Yeah, that makes me feel old but I’m okay with that.

When all those life changes were taking place, I told myself that I would get caught up later and that I would get back to having my finger on the pulse of the gaming world. Now, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen and, unless it was how I made my living, I don’t think it would be worth it.

Plus, I’ve become more interested in lighter, casual games. I either don’t have the time or don’t want to make the time to learn lots of longer games. Oh, I’m not writing them all off. I’d like to someday get Scythe or whatever it’s successor is and I’m not getting rid of Reef Encounter. I’ve just become a lot fussier about my longer games. I’d rather find a few longer games I want to play over and over.

And I’ll keep look at ‘best of’ lists. I figure if a game is still in print and still beloved after a year, it will be worth seriously looking into. I’ll let someone else do the hard work for me :D

I guess I’d rather play games rather than constantly find new games. Even though I’m sure I’ll miss some gems, I’ll still be rolling in gems.

GenCon reminds me that I’m old :D

While I haven’t been to GenCon since 2014, I’m still on the mailing lists and recently got an email about how hotels in the city are full up but there was still vacancies in the suburbs. Now, I know this is because GenCon’s housing department pretty much buys out the city and there’s some kind of lottery to get rooms but that’s still a far cry from my GenCon 2000 experience, where I drove up to Milwaukee for the day and had no problems getting in or getting into events.

Over the sixteen or so GenCons that I attended, things sure changed a lot. Some of that may have been my own perceptions but the convention definitely is different than it was almost twenty years ago. It’s much bigger, more family-oriented and more commercial.

This may be rose-tinted glasses speaking but I am convinced that, back in those olden days, when we had to chase triceratops out of the exhibit hall, events tended to be volunteer/amateur/works-of-love based. I ended up in my longest-running campaign because a group that turned out to be close to me ran an event that was a one-shot set in their campaign.

Frankly, in those ancient times, GenCon was really more of a local event. And the crust of the Earth was still cooling.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying things were better back then. The pterodactyl drumsticks were bigger, sure, but high speed internet is the bomb. I’m not the “you kids get off my lawn” guy. I’m more the “wait, I have a lawn?” guy.

Truth to tell, GenCon has to change and evolve. The world has changed. Gaming, the game market and the gaming community has changed. If it didn’t change, it’d be dinosaur bones in Milwaukee. I hope to take my son someday to the modern GenCon but I don’t know if I’d take him to the old one. And if you want that local feel, there are a lot more local cons these days.

But man have things changed. You’re not going to get a chance to game with the Piltdown Man in today’s GenCon.

Further adventures in purging

My latest round of purging had the most prosaic of reasons. We needed storage space for our son’s new tricycle and some of his other stuff. You know, when I have to get rid of games for that kind of reason, I feel like I am doing something right.

I remember hearing about a dad who had to turn his man cave into nursery. Eventually, he had just three pendants on the wall. It was told as a tragedy but I decided it was a story about how kids and families and hobbies work. When we were expecting our doodle, I knew that I’d have my own version of that story.

Maybe my son will end up really into board games and we will end up with a closet or a room devoted to games. Maybe he won’t. But, right now, he will get the storage space he needs!

(When he’s a teenager, we may have very different views on storage space)

Oh, so that’s what the Graveyard Book is about!

I didn’t realize that the Graveyard Book was Neil Gaiman’s version of the Jungle Book (only in a graveyard!) until the afterwards. Which is particularly funny since I found myself thinking that The Witch’s Headstone followed the structure of The King’s Ankus. (Yes, I’ve read the Second Jungle Book)

The Graveyard Book won lots of awards, even by Neil Gaiman standards. However, it somehow went over my head when it came out. Life has a way back of being complicated that way :P

I just finished the book up and I have a feeling that, as time goes by, I’m going to like and appreciate the book more and more. Rereading it knowing that it is a tribute to Kipling will probably really help. I might reread the two Jungle Books and then reread the Graveyard Book.

At the end of the book, I really wanted and didn’t want a sequel. (Although I understand The Ocean At The End Of the Lane shares a setting so that might count in some ways :P) Part of me wanted to know what happens next to Nob and more about all the mysterious and apparently epic stuff that happened off-screen. On the other hand, I think that would weaken the work a lot. Sometimes, what we don’t know makes us treasure what we do know.

When I was actually reading the book, I amused and I enjoyed myself. However, I didn’t find myself thinking that it was one of Gaiman’s greats. But, looking back, looking at the ways he subverted my expectations and restrained himself to keep the mystery alive, I think it is.

Yeah, this will get reread.